ISD France

ISD's work in France extends back to the founding of the Club of Three, a policy-led dialogue between senior political figures, academics and experts to address issues regarding social cohesion and security cooperation including antisemitism.

Today, ISD has expanded its work to facilitate a whole of society response to the challenges facing France, including the threats of hate, extremism and foreign influence campaigns.

ISD France applies its suite of digital research methods to map hate online, analyse information manipulation and better understand extremist narratives. Our research also aims to better understand what initiatives are most effective in countering these phenomena, equipping practitioners with step-by-step guides and creative tools to best challenge these issues. Leveraging the insights from this research, ISD France seeks to inform and coordinate a civic response to build more cohesive and resilient societies.

Civil society responses and partnerships

This includes work through the Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI), launched in 2018, and the €10m Google Impact Challenge for Safety, launched in 2019 – each of which supported hundreds of French civil society actors dedicated to countering hate and extremism online. ISD also develops education responses localised to the French context, with the aim of providing youth and educators with tools to effectively navigate online risks.

ISD also works to encourage more coherent and effective policy responses to a wide range of online harms. This includes advising government actors like the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA), the DILCRAH (Délégation interministérielle à la lutte contre le racisme, l’antisémitisme et la haine anti-LGBT) and the CIPDR (Comité interministériel de prévention de la délinquance et de la radicalisation). It also includes French cities within ISD’s Strong Cities, participating in policy events and working groups like the Commission on Online Hate and the Online Hate Observatory, as well as engaging key technology firms.

In 2022, ISD CEO Sasha Havlicek addressed the Christchurch Call Leaders’ Summit, convened by then New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking about enduring challenges in addressing terrorist and violent extremist activity online, particularly in non-English speaking contexts. In 2025, Sasha spoke about hybridized threats in an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment at an event held by President Macron at the Élysée.

Cutting edge research with real world applications

In 2019, ISD published  Mapping Hate in France/Cartographie de la Haine en Ligne Tour d’horizon du discours haineux en France, a comprehensive overview of online hate. Using social media data analytic tools that combine machine learning and natural language processing with qualitative analysis, the report provided a detailed analysis of the dynamics of the most prevalent types of hateful speech across online platforms in France.

Complementing this report was Building Digital Citizenship in France: Lessons from the Sens Critique project, which aimed to raise awareness among pupils on the dangers of foreign influence campaigns and hate speech, piloted with 22 pupils from three schools in the Paris region. The programme included awareness-raising exercises and evaluated with surveys for the students and their parents before and after their completion.

This was followed by the adaption of ISD’s Young Digital Leaders (YDL) curriculum and parent guide to a French context and designing additional resources and campaigns against disinformation in France with partners such as What the Fake.